March 13, 2015

The oil and gas boom has not been as kind to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s home state, isolated and beleaguered Alaska, where crude oil production, a major source of revenue and jobs, is falling, CQ Roll Call’s Geof Koss reports after a a sit down with the chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Full story

March 10, 2015

Small-government Republicans control both chambers, but regional divisions make it unlikely that critics can even partially repeal the renewable fuel standard, as a bipartisan trio of senators proposed last month, CQ Roll Call’s Geof Koss reports. The divisions could be summed up as Big Oil vs Big Ethanol. Full story

March 9, 2015

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant before verifying it could pass a seismic safety test.

The company realized the mistake in 2011 and said the parts were safe after a subsequent analysis, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Starting in 2008, PG&E swapped out the plant’s old steam generators and reactor vessel heads without evaluating whether the replacements could withstand a major earthquake on the Hosgri Fault — just 3 miles away — and a simultaneous loss of cooling water within the reactors.